The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Thursday, September 1, 2016

The "Other" Palestinians - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

How many Western journalists have cared to inquire about the
thirsty Palestinians of Yarmouk refugee camp, in Syria? Does anyone know
that this camp has been without water supply for more than 720 days,
and without electricity for the past three years?

Nearly 3,500 Palestinians
have been killed in Syria since 2011. But because these Palestinians
were killed by Arabs, and not Israelis, this fact is not news in the
mainstream media or of interest to "human rights" forums.

How many Western journalists have cared to inquire about the
thirsty Palestinians of Yarmouk refugee camp, in Syria? Does anyone know
that this camp has been without water supply for more than 720 days,
and without electricity for the past three years? In June 2002, 112,000
Palestinians lived in Yarmouk. By the end of 2014, the population was
down to less than 20,000.

Nor is the alarm bell struck concerning the more than 12,000
Palestinians languishing in Syrian prisons, including 765 children and
543 women. According to Palestinian sources, some 503 Palestinian
prisoners have died under torture in recent years, and some female
prisoners have been raped by interrogators and guards.

When Western journalists lavish time on Palestinians delayed at
Israeli checkpoints, and ignore bombs dropped by the Syrian military on
residential areas, one might start to wonder they are really about.

It seems as though the international community has forgotten that
Palestinians can be found far beyond the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
These "other" Palestinians live in Arab countries such as Syria, Jordan
and Lebanon, and their many serious grievances are evidently of no
interest to the international community. It is only Palestinians
residing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that garner international
attention. Why? Because it is precisely these individuals that the
international community wield as a weapon against Israel.

Nearly 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the
beginning of the civil war in 2011. But because these Palestinians were
killed by Arabs, and not Israelis, this fact is not news in the
mainstream media. This figure was revealed
last week by the London-based Action Group For Palestinians of Syria
(AGPS), founded in 2012 with the goal of documenting the suffering of
the Palestinians in that country and preparing lists of victims,
prisoners and missing people in order to submit them to the databases of
human rights forums.

Yet the "human rights" forums pay scant attention to such findings.
They are indeed too busy to take much notice, wholly preoccupied as they
are with Israel.

By focusing their attention only on the Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, these "human rights" forums continuously seek to find
ways to hold Israel responsible for wrongdoing, while ignoring the
crimes perpetrated by Arabs against their Palestinian brothers. This
obsession with Israel, which sometimes reaches ridiculous heights, does a
great disservice to the Palestinian victims of Arab crimes.
If you take some numbers, according
to AGPS, 85 Palestinians were killed in Syria in the first year of the
civil war in 2011. The following year, the number rose to 776. The year
2013 saw the highest number of Palestinian victims: 1,015. In 2014, the
number of Palestinians who were killed in Syria was 724. The following
year, 502 Palestinians were killed. And since the beginning of this year
(until July), some 200 Palestinians were killed in Syria.

How were these Palestinians killed? The group says that they were
killed as a result of direct shelling, armed clashes, torture in prison,
bombings, and as a result of the besieging of their refugee camps in
Syria.

Yet the plight of its people in Syria does not seem to top the list
for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. Pride of place on that
list goes to assigning blame to Israel for everything the PA itself has
caused. For PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior officials in the
West Bank, the Palestinians in Syria simply do not rate. In fact, in a
step that boggles the mind, the PA leadership is currently seeking to
improve its relations with the Assad regime in Syria -- the very regime
that is killing, imprisoning and torturing scores of Palestinians on a
daily basis.

In a move that has enraged
many Palestinians in Syria, the Palestinian Authority recently
celebrated the inauguration of a new Palestinian embassy in Damascus.
"They [the PA leadership] have sold the Palestinians in Syria and
reconciled with the Syrian regime," remarked a Palestinian from Syria.
Another Palestinian commented: "Now we know why several PLO
delegations have been visiting Syria recently; they sought to renew
their ties with the regime and not ensure the safety of our refugee
camps or seek the release of Palestinians held in [Syrian] prisons."

Others accused the Palestinian Authority leadership of "sacrificing
the blood of Palestinians." They pointed out that the Syrian regime, by
permitting the opening of the new embassy, was rewarding the PA for
turning its back on the plight of the Palestinians of Syria. The
Palestinians complained that PA diplomats and representatives in
Damascus, to whom they appealed in the past for help, have ignored their
calls.

International media outlets regularly report on the "water crisis" in
Palestinian towns and villages, especially in the West Bank. This is a
story that repeats itself almost every summer, when some foreign
journalists set out to search for any story that reflects negatively on
Israel. And there is nothing more comfortable than holding Israel
responsible for the "water crisis" in the West Bank.

But how many Western journalists have cared to inquire about the
thirsty Palestinians of Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria? Does anyone in
the international community know that this camp has been without water
supply for more than 720 days? Or that the camp has been without
electricity for the past three years?

Yarmouk, which is located only eight kilometers from the center of
Damascus, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. That is, it
was the largest camp. In June 2002, 112,000 Palestinians lived in
Yarmouk. By the end of 2014, the camp population had been decimated to
less than 20,000. Medical sources say many of the residents of the camp are suffering from a host of diseases.

These figures are alarming, but not to the Palestinian Authority
leadership or mainstream media and "human rights" organizations in the
West. Nor is the alarm bell struck concerning the more than 12,000
Palestinians languishing in Syrian prisons, without the right to see a
lawyer or family members. These include 765 children and 543 women. According to Palestinian sources, some 503 Palestinian prisoners have died under torture in recent years.

Sources say
that some of the Palestinian female prisoners have been raped by their
interrogators and guards. Huda, a 19-year-old girl from Yarmouk, said
she became pregnant after being repeatedly gang-raped while she was held
in Syrian prison for 15 days. "Sometimes, they used to rape me more
than 10 times a day," Huda recounted, adding that as a result she
suffered severe bleeding and lost consciousness. She also told an
hour-long story of how she was held in a cell for three weeks with the
bodies of other prisoners who had been tortured to death.

Such stories rarely make it to the pages of major newspapers in the
West. Nor are these stories discussed at conferences held by various
international human rights organizations, or even the United Nations.
The only Palestinian prisoners the world talks about are those
incarcerated by Israel. The Palestinian Authority leadership never
misses an opportunity to call for the release of Palestinians held by
Israel, most of whom are suspected of or have been found guilty of
terrorism. But when it comes to the thousands who are being tortured in
Syria, the PA leaders in Ramallah are deadly silent. For the sake of
accuracy, it is worth mentioning that the Palestinian factions Fatah and
Hamas have sometimes contacted the Syrian authorities regarding
prisoners -- but it turns out that the two groups were just seeking the
release of some of their members.

Reports
from Syria say that three Palestinian refugee camps remain under strict
siege by the Syrian army and its puppet Palestinian groups. Yarmouk,
for instance, has been under siege for more than 970 days, while the
Al-Sabinah refugee camp has been under siege for more than 820 days. The
Handarat camp has been facing the same fate for over 1000 days. Most of
the residents of these camps have been forced to flee their homes. In
Yarmouk, 186 Palestinians have died of starvation or lack of medical
attention. More than 70% of the Daraa camp has been completely destroyed
due to recurring shelling by the Syrian army and other militias.

The Palestinians of Syria would have been more fortunate had they
been living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Then the international
community and media would certainly have noticed them. Yet when Western
journalists lavish time on Palestinians delayed at Israeli checkpoints
in the West Bank, and ignore barrels of explosives dropped by the Syrian
military on residential areas in refugee camps in Syria, one might
start to wonder what they are really about.